Ep. 21 - Birthday

In the end, we had to skip a school day. Weiss slept all day and I wasn't going to leave her alone. She started waking up in the afternoon, around time for the sparring classes. As a side note, the missions were rescheduled to next week, in order for all possible forces to be present in case the Grimm appear again through some damaged underground tunnel. It shouldn't happen but Murphy's a bitch, so I won't count on it.

As another side note, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald seem to be holed up in their room. Not that I give a fuck. I decided to just live a normal student life with Weiss and my friends. Basically what I always do, just more relaxed. Yang, Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha, and Nora were worried about Weiss, while the guys weren't worried with me being with her. In their words, I am 'possessive, jealous, overprotective', and the list continues. I did point out they would do the same for Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake. They didn't refute. They did give me a strange look when Yang started shouting 'He shot your father?!'

"That was my bad, okay? I just snapped!" was my defence. Not very solid, apparently.

Anyway, let's forget about that. Since Weiss wanted a normal life, I would make sure she had a happy, normal life. Problem is: apparently I have a strange definition of normal and even acceptable when it comes to life. When I tried to refute, I was slapped with my vacation on planet Resort a few weeks ago. To make up for this, I started discreetly observing my normal classmates.

'I really can't seem to understand what they mean. They do exactly what I do, just smaller.' I decided to just do what I always did. Maybe no more space dates but just normal dates. 'No way, that's boring.'

A week passed between Weiss getting happier by the day, classes, studying, and so on. This Saturday is Weiss' birthday. Since I am me, I went above and beyond. I stayed on Remnant so what I did is still partially normal. Me and the gang organized a surprise party.

Remember when I said I wanted a house in the EDZ overlooking a lake and the Traveler's shard? Well, I already had the blueprint for my house/mansion, so I downscaled the thing and made a nice little chalet in the Forever Fall Forest. I surrounded the house with robotic fireflies, set up a grill with enough food to feed an army, a campfire, some music, enough couches for us to sit down comfortably, and that was only the outside. 'I may have overdone it a bit… Nah, this is fine.' I also set up traps and shield generators to prevent Grimms from wandering near the location. Pretty normal for an extra-dimensional robot with human mind and skin.

When she asked me what we were going to do for her birthday, I told her to wait for the evening. It would be better like this. Our friends were preparing the things in the chalet, while I was tasked with distracting her, so I brought her out on a date. I heard about a very nice park. One of those filled with all kinds of plants and flowers. 'How are they called again? Doesn't matter. Weiss is enjoying it, so I shouldn't fuss over the details.'

We ate a light lunch, then went to the commercial district. I already bought anything that caught her attention last time we came here. I want to see if anything different caught her eye. This time, the only thing that caused her to stop was once again the bridal dress.

I held her hand and said: "It's a little too early. How about we graduate first? We'll be over 20 by that time, so I think it would be appropriate then."

She just smiled and nodded. 'Did she just accept marrying me? Just like that?!'

The sun was starting to set as we reached a hill overlooking the city. 'It's kinda convenient that Vale has so many observation/date spots. Really helps me.'

We just sat on a bench looking at the sunset.

"Before… When I said that it's too early and all that… Did you accept marrying me?" I asked, still looking at the sun.

"Isn't it obvious? Did you already forget my dream?"

���Of course I didn't forget. I just wanted to make sure…" I got on my knee in front of her. "That this doesn't get rejected." I said, holding a ring. I made it myself with a crystal I sneakily got during our first space date. I had forgotten about it, but MoonRay is the best wingwoman and reminded me.

"It might be a little early to ask you this since we met less than a year ago, but would you marry me, Weiss Schnee?" I said. I didn't get a response. Nope… I got hit by a bullet.

Not really, I just found Weiss stuck to me.

"Yes!"

'Nice.'

By the time she separated from me, the sun had already set.

"The ring and date was just a part of today. Let's go." I said, extending my hand.

I had her wear a sleeping mask to cover her eyes then trasmated to the ship, then back to the chalet. When we arrived, I saw everybody in position, so we started the surprise.

"You can take the mask off."

When she just took it off, we fired some of those big party poppers, filled to the brim with white, light blue, and silver confetti.

"Surprise!" Everybody shouted.

She covered her mouth with her hand, gasping.

"A birthday is always better with friends. Happy birthday, Weiss."

Seeing her all emotional caused Nora to shout "Group hug!", so what could we all do but go in for a hug.

When she calmed down, she used her hand to wipe off her tears. 'She's crying a lot lately. Fortunately, they are usually tears of joy.'

Anyway, using her left hand wasn't a good idea. Blake saw the ring I gave her. After a quick glance with the other girls, they dragged her to the upper floors. I didn't even had time to react, they literally YEET'ed themselves out of the room.

Me and the bois just shrugged and started actually put stuff on the grill. It was surprising to discover that Jaune and Ren are actually quite good cooks. A surprise, but a welcome one because I couldn't cook a plate of pasta decently in my past life. Maybe, I could download some cooking knowledge into my brain and try again.

On a side note, Sun was with us, and quite good with the guitar. After seeing that, which was totally unplanned, I made a drum set, since I was pretty good at playing that. Ren and Jaune instead were good with a trumpet and a bass, so I made those as well and put on an improvised jam session. We just finished setting up when the girls returned, so we started jamming. It was quite uncoordinated at first, but after a couple of minutes we got in the groove. Every once in a while, Jaune or Ren would do a quick check on our food.

Between food, playing music, talking a bit, and just enjoying the night, we decided to sleep here for the night. Pyrrha and Nora were acting very clingy with Jaune and Ren. Blake was embarrassed, but was also staying closer to Sun. 'Good thing every room is soundproof.'

Now I am faced with a dilemma. A problem that might plague every man at a certain point in their lives. What to do, in a room, with your just-turned-18-years-old girlfriend… and two of your teammates?

'What kind of fuckery is this? I don't remember bringing out the alcohol. Wait! Could it be… No. Nonono! Did they find my hidden stash?'

Yes, I had a private stash. I should make it clear that Exos can taste food, alcohol, juices, etc. But we don't actually need to eat to survive.

Do you seriously think that a guy, who was previously in University, could actually not drink alcohol? Well, there are a lot that don't like drinking, but I do. Not enough to get wasted every day, but a good old drink every once in a while does miracles for stress and picking up your mood.

Beacon obviously doesn't allow alcohol on school grounds, so I decided to put a stash here and use it as my own version of a 'man cave'.

Back to the problem.

Currently in my room, which automatically becomes Weiss' room since I have been her hug pillow for months (nothing else, just snuggling close), there are two intruders. One of them still had a bottle in hand. And let me tell you, Weiss was NOT amused. I was in a corner thinking 'She's scary, she's scary, she's…' over and over. There were fucking icicles forming on the window. 'Actually, how the fuck is that even possible?!'

"What are you two doing here?" Weiss asked. If she had a weapon on her, she'd totally point it at them.

"It's not fair! You have Tula, Pyrrha has Jaune, Nora has Ren, and now Blake has Sun! We have no one! And we spent a month with him before coming to Beacon!" a dead drunk Yang shouted. 'Fuck, did she find the heavy stuff? And don't pull me into this!'

"Ho, mind telling me what she means? Hubby?" she said, totally NOT smiling.

"I would love to have you call me 'Hubby', but not in this situation! As for the question I told you, I crashed at their place before coming to Beacon."

"Right, you did say something like that…" she then turned back to Yang and Ruby, who was fidgeting behind her. "Once again, why are you here, now of all times?"

"You can't hog him to yourself! We were first!"

'I see where this is going. And I kinda like it.'

Ruby then muttered something from behind Yang.

"What were you saying Ruby?" asked Weiss. I think she knows very well where this is going. 'What will she do? She has changed, but I don't know how much. I do feel like this could have happened at a better moment, like not the day I asked her to marry me, or her birthday.'

"W-we l-like him too!"

"And there we go. Do you know what you're saying?"

"We saw that ring! I don't care! It's lonely, you know?! It's frustrating, all the care you, Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake get! We liked Tula from before Beacon, then you arrive and take him away… We're alone. I feel excluded! Why does it have to be you? Why can't it be me?" As she was continuing, Yang started talking lower and lower, until it became a whisper. She also started crying.

'Now, how do I handle it? To be honest, I was expecting to be assaulted, not an outburst of feelings. Yang doesn't look the type.' I looked at Weiss, who was currently staring at me. 'Is that the 'you handle this' look? She did the same thing when Blake had her outburst earlier in the year. Argh, I hope I don't mess everything up, nor hurt their feelings. This is hard. How did harem protagonists do this again? Don't they just get girls with a magnet?!'

I decided to the only thing I thought would work at the moment. I walked up to the three of them, took the bottle from Yang's hand and… I downed it. My body can't get drunk, but I hope I somehow start 'feeling' drunk. I proceeded to hug the three of them. Weiss just accepted the hug, while Yang and Ruby were stiff. They didn't expect to get a hug evidently.

Both Yang and Ruby started crying, so I started hugging them tighter. We stayed like that for a bit, then they all fell asleep in my arms.

'This didn't go so bad. Now, what do I do? If I move they fall- Ah, yes. My Light clones.' I made two clones who took Yang and Ruby, while I took care of the sleeping Weiss. I still have my favorites, no matter what.

The three sleeping beauties, literally and figuratively were gently laid on the bed.

Oh, what was what? I'm a pussy for not making a move on them? I would have if it was only Weiss, maybe if Yang and Ruby were at least sober. I would never touch someone drunk, much less now that they are sleeping. I'm a firm believer in Vanilla.

Anyway, I covered them with the bedsheets, then I took my place… On a chair. The bed was normal-sized, so there wasn't enough space.

I took another look at the girls in bed. Weiss had a happy look, same with Yang and Ruby, though their face was a mess because they cried. 'Now I have three of them to take care of. This will be hard… I also need to tell them who I am. Meh, it might be worth it. Actually, it already is. Their sleeping faces are adorable.'

'Man, today sure feels like a birthday, even I got some surprise presents! Bad joke, no more.'

With that thought, I slept.